Vadim Abramov’s men played really well in the quarterfinal match against Jordan – everyone who watched that game could admire the dedication and commitment the players displayed. And the breathtaking three minutes by Ulugbek Bakaev at the beginning of the second half made him a hero not only in the eyes of his fellow countrymen: a popular website www.goal.com named him the world’s player of the week. However, the 32-year-old striker was a hero for only one match: in the game against the Australians, his energy and passion turned into two yellow cards to send him off, after which already losing Uzbek team completely fell apart.

Unfortunately, the game against Jordan brought injuries (here it is, dedication!) of two key players of Uzbekistan national team - goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov and striker Aleksandr Geynrich. And although Abramov said after the match with Australians that it was not about the missing individuals, but the general performance of the team, the absence of key players had its affect on the match result. Especially after the fast goal scored by Harry Kewell already after five minutes. It was not the fault of Timur Juraev who replaced Nesterov: the goalkeeper did his best, and in some episodes was simply outstanding. But in the end even he could not do anything with the powerful strike by Robbie Cruise...

“Right now it is difficult for me to find an explanation to such result, the players made too many mistakes,” Vadim Abramov told after the match. “Now we have to get ourselves together and try to do better in the upcoming match for third place against Korea. This is the only way to get the trust of our fans back.”

Yes, there still is hope for the bronze medals. And all the fans of Uzbekistan national team hope and believe that by 28 January, our team will overcome the crisis and will play against the South Korean players, who lost to Japan in the penalty shootout, on the high level, which the showed before the semifinals.